Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Australian voters are set to elect
Tony Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition to manage the $1.5
trillion economy, as preliminary results show the Labor party
being ejected after six years in power.

The coalition was ahead in 77 of the 150 districts up for
grabs in the lower house, where government is formed, with 70.1
percent of the vote counted, compared with Kevin Rudd’s Labor on
53, the Australian Electoral Commission said on its website. The
Australian Broadcasting Corp. projected an Abbott victory.

Abbott, 55, a Rhodes Scholar and former trainee priest, has
seen his popularity rise during the five-week campaign, vowing
to repeal Labor’s carbon price mechanism and mining profits tax.
Rudd, 55, who returned to the leadership 10 weeks ago by ousting
Julia Gillard, has struggled to convince voters he should be
elected as three years of infighting and policy reversals damage
perceptions of Australia’s oldest political party.

“The division that we’ve seen has been disastrous,”
outgoing Health Minister Tanya Plibersek told Australian
Broadcasting Corp. “I’d give us 9 out of 10 for governing the
country; I’d give us 0 out of 10 for governing ourselves. It’s
pretty plain we had too many people playing their own games and
no playing for the team. We were not disciplined enough.”

Switching Sides

Television networks including ABC, Sky News and Nine
projected the coalition has won the election.

“The train has been coming for Labor for a long time and
it’s suddenly hit in a big way,” said Norman Abjorensen, a
political analyst at the Australian National University in
Canberra. “Labor’s whole thrust during its campaign has been to
minimize damage, but realistically it’s now looking at a long
time out of power, which may give it some time to get its house
in order.”

Labor’s performance reflected a “vote on disunity,”
Treasurer Chris Bowen told the Nine Network. “The party going
forward needs to build on the achievements of the last six
years, but also remind ourselves of the importance of unity
amongst the most senior members of our party.”

Erin Miller, 30, an executive assistant in the non-profit
sector, said she switched allegiances after voting for Labor in
the previous two elections. “I don’t particularly like Tony
Abbott, but I don’t think the Labor party has done a good job
over the past few years,” she said.

Benny Ng, 38, a Hong Kong born hospital administrator who
arrived in Australia about 25 years ago, said the biggest issue
for him had been a lack of stability in leadership.

Unified Team

“The fact that Tony Abbott has actually held together in
opposition the same team for three and a half years speaks
volumes,” he said in the main ballroom of the Four Seasons
hotel, where coalition supporters had gathered to await Abbott.
“People are really looking for stable governance.”

Abbott will be responsible for an economy that has avoided
consecutive quarters of contraction -- the local definition of a
recession -- for 22 years. Signs of a slowdown have emerged,
with interest rates cut to record lows to counter rising
unemployment, forecast by Treasury last month to reach a more
than decade-high 6.25 percent next year, as a China-led
resources-investment boom fades.

The coalition, whose last term in office ended in 2007
after nearly 12 years, is pledging to cut taxes while funding a
A$5.5 billion ($5 billion) per year maternity-leave program. It
plans to cut red tape; reduce the civil service by at least
12,000 positions; lower subsidies for automakers; cancel
handouts to parents of school children and achieve a budget
surplus equal to 1 percent of gross domestic product within a
decade.

Leadership Turmoil

Rudd, 55, on June 26 won back the Labor leadership lost to
Gillard in a back-room party coup three years earlier. The term
of Australia’s first female prime minister was hobbled by
questions about her legitimacy after she formed a minority
government with support from independents and the Greens,
reneging on a pledge not to implement a carbon tax.

“This is probably a verdict not so much on Rudd-Gillard
personally, but I think it is a verdict on six years where
there’s been division and there’s been disunity,” Liberal
Senator Arthur Sinodinos said on ABC. “Kevin was not able to be
the circuit breaker.”

Core Issue

Voters were tired of the divisions within Labor, said
former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, who stood as a Labor
candidate in the district of Forde. “People will dissect the
gizzards, and pull out bits and pieces, but that is the reason
why this election is going the way it is, that is the core
issue,” he told the ABC.

Since returning to power, Rudd has called on Abbott to
outline how he’ll fund promised tax cuts and spending increases
on education, disabled care and paid parental leave at a time of
weaker-than-forecast government revenue, saying he has a
“hidden agenda” to implement drastic reductions to services.

Forty of the 76 seats in the upper house will also be
decided. While final results for the Senate, where the Greens
hold the balance of power, may not be known for several weeks, a
swing from Labor is expected, according to Zareh Ghazarian, a
political analyst at Monash University in Melbourne.

“The party made a solid start in its first three years but
saw enormous damage in its final three, when voters grew
concerned it was more concerned with internal matters than
running the country,” Ghazarian said.